It has been a year since the credit crisis first reared its ugly head. Despite aggressive moves by the US Federal Reserve in the past year to ease the flow of credit into the economy, the situation seems to have gotten from bad to worse. Most of the banks in the US are saying that they will continue to cut back credit to consumers and businesses.

Meanwhile, UBS, in which the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation invested 11b Swiss francs, has recently registered a worse-than-expected second quarter loss of 358m Swiss francs. According to its management, the Swiss bank will be splitting its wealth management business from its battered investment banking unit in the wake of the crippling global credit crisis.

For this issue, we paid a visit to AmFraser Securities to find out more about its business direction going forward. With the support of the Singapore Exchange, the oldest stockbroking firm on local shores has just launched the industry’s first retail exchange traded fund (ETF) allocation report. Hoping to raise the investing public’s understanding and awareness of ETFs, AmFraser also shared with us some of its other business plans in the pipeline.

In addition, we take a closer look at sofa manufacturer Man Wah Holdings. Even though the Mainboard-listed company derives the bulk of its revenue from US and Europe, which are very much affected by the ongoing credit crunch, it still managed to post a 65.3% bottom-line surge in 1Q09.

At long last, the much-awaited 2008 Beijing Olympics has begun, with a spectacular opening ceremony at the Bird’s Nest, China’s National Stadium. But S-shares have not been able to ride on the hype of the once-every-four-years sporting extravaganza, largely mirroring the performances of their Chinese counterparts.

Time and again, we have heard people telling us that China plays have been beaten to rock bottom valuations. So is it really time for us to pick up the bargains? Or will they suffer another bout of selldown after the Olympics? Whichever the case, investors should not despair but adopt a value approach as robust earnings and inexpensive valuations would provide downside protection and significant upside potential once investor confidence returns.